This week in the lecture and tutorial we dove into the wonderful world of Fan Culture, and my god it was interesting. We watched a documentary, Crazy About One Direction. This documentary shows young female teenagers dedication, for lack of a more detrimental word such as ‘Crazy’, to the band.

The documentary depicts the lengths fans will go whilst being dedicated to a said band, movie franchise, television programme etc, and how they are united by their love for One Direction. These girls, known as directioners are committed to Harry, Zayn, Niall, Liam and Louis so much that they camp outside to get tickets for concerts, they camp outside for the actual concerts, through twitter they keep constant tabs on the boys whereabouts. They have even gone as far as threatening the band members girlfriends.

Another interesting topic of Fan culture that cropped up in the documentary was fan fiction and slash fiction. The teenage girls read slash fiction to fulfill this fantasy they call ‘shipping’ where they want Harry and Louis to be together calling them; Larry Stylinson. The fans support this bromance/secret love affair by artwork and writing fiction stories.

The documentary shows how for some fans following One Direction is all they have, it is there escape from life. It was touching to see how much it means to fans to meet their idols. One of the girls in the documentary went to see wax figures of the band and it was if she was meeting them in person. To see how much happiness things like this can bring to one person is phenomenal.

Although there was touching moments in the documentary there were also scary ones. Friends sitting side by side saying they would kill the other with a chance to meet them. The love they share for the band can be dangerous, as a group they stand together and fight for ‘their’ boys, protecting them from outsiders who badmouth them in any way, shape or form. But, within the group, they are cruel. With girls exclaiming ‘She’s ugly, why has she met the boys?’ the green eye’d monsters can become nasty.

I felt the documentary was a bit one sided, kind of. Although it makes for ‘great television’ there are fans who are not so dramatic about there dedication. Speaking from experience, I myself would be a fan of an Irish band, The Coronas. I have went to many of their gigs and would go every year (Minus the year I was abroad and even then I tried to go in Spain and then they changed the date to the week after I left and the Irish date was the day I came home)

I too have created fan artwork for the band. And when I received a Tweet back from Danny (lead singer) to say the least I was excited but my god I wouldn’t kill the person to the side of me to meet them. But, maybe that because I have done so… I suppose it’s hard to say what’s deemed normal or dramatic in these situation. Who makes these rules? Society? Who cares!

P.S…. Don’t want to brag…. But I sang on stage with them…. Best moment of my life!